I have been curious about both this beer in particular and its style in general ever since my local, in-person trader, tone77, dropped it off for me. I would hope that by the end of today's tasting session that I will have become smarter since that is the underlying idea.

From the bottle: "Wee wee (insert dirty French laugh here). Biere de Garde is a traditional French farmhouse ale brewed in March for drinking during the spring and summer months. Like another great French tradition, surrender your taste buds to Garde Dog's toasted aroma and spicy, malty sweetness. Wee wee. Haw haw haw."; "Good people drink good beer. - Hunter S. Thompson".

My initial, heavy-handed and wrong-headed, pour caused it to overflow the top of the glass. I recommend a gentle extended pour with this beer as a result. Crisis averted, I was left with two foamy fingers of tawny head with moderate retention. Color was a cloudy orangish-yellow. Nose was sweet, fruity, almost vinous. There was an underlying earthiness to it, but that was not prevalent. Mouthfeel had the same thin wateriness as its saison brethren, but here the emphasis was clearly on the malt and its interaction with the yeast. It had a very fruity, berry-like, grape-y flavor in the mouth along with a slight mustiness on the tongue. Finish was semi-sweet with the yeast leaving a lingering dryness in the back of the throat while the fruity sweetness remained in the mouth. A very different drink from what I am used to and I am very glad that I asked for clarification on the style before I began.